Snippet
by swanpride
Summary: Between Episode 1 and 2, Bogg explains to Jeffrey, how the Omni works.


_AN: This part happens between episode one and two of the show. It is actually part of a bigger story I don't have the time to write at the moment. I decided early on that if I spend time writing for the voyager-fandom, I would write another story, "Raging Fires", first. The problem was: There are a lot of __important information about how the voyager-world works in my mind, which I simply can't write into "Raging Fires", since this story happens after the show ended and Jeffrey is suppose to know all this already. I could have left a long author note with explanations, but in the end, I opted to write the scene where Bogg explains Jeffrey about the Omni and give you the snippet (One day, I may write the whole story about what happend between Episode 1 and 2). I hope you will find my reasoning somewhat logical. _

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„Here, I'll show you." Bogg drew a long line into the sand. "This is the regular timeline. It's like a very thick rope. But it isn't very stable yet. Sometimes, it frizzles out at one point in time." He drew a smaller line coming from one point of the thicker line to illustrate his point. "If nobody corrects the problem, the "frizzle" will become thicker and thicker and the main line will become smaller until it finally vanishes."

"So when the Omni sends us into a wrong time, we are not on the main threat but on one of the "frizzles", right?" asked Jeffrey.

"Yes, and that's why the canons at the Battle of Hastings didn't influence on the First World War, where we were before. It was a different frizzle."

"And the Omni somehow detects those frizzles?"

"If you set it to automatic mode, it'll bring you automatically to one, close to what's wrong. Sometimes I think that the thing even has a mind of his own, because until now, I always landed close to the people who could give me the information I needed." Bogg watched Jeffrey looking at the Omni in awe. Making a split-second decision he pulled the Omni from his belt and opened the clasp. If the boy was staying with him, he should know what to do in case of an emergency. "As you can see, the globe isn't very precise for setting a location. But the Omni is. It has speech recognition; it uses the information from the globe, the specification it picked up from my voice and whatever it can sense from the frizzle itself to find the ideal place for a landing."

"So it won't drop us into a volcano by accident?"

Bogg chuckled. "The Omni can be unpredictable sometimes, but as far as I know, the worst injury a Voyager has ever suffered during a landing was a broken leg. He fell into a bear trap. His story was always mentioned in class as an example what can happen if the Omni isn't maintained properly."

"Can you set the date by speech recognition, too?" Jeffrey asked interestedly.

"No, setting a date has to be very precise, so it's more complicated. See, at the moment the "V" is in the little window on top. That's the automatic mode. The first thing a Voyager does after a jump is to readjust the Omni to this position, to guarantee him a way out. That is very important, because the Omni doesn't accept a new date, unless you have adjusted it to automatic mode first. Since I've done that already, we can now choose a time and destination by ourselves. You see the four rings?"

"Yes, they are for setting the date, right?"

"Right! The innermost ring is for the month, the second one for the day. You don't have to use those two to make a jump. You can simply leave them as they are now. In this case, the Omni will choose the date automatically. But you have to adjust both of the outer rings, or it will go back to automatic mode. Those are for setting the year. See the numbers on the outer ring? The one with a minus in front of them are for BC."

"The lowest number is -14," Jeffrey noticed.

"That's because this model goes only from 1450 BC to 1970. Even if you regulate it to 1451 BC, it wouldn't work. Although I am not so sure about that anymore; after all, I wasn't suppose to land in 1982, either."

"And what happens if there is a frizzle before 1450 BC?"

"Can't happen. Up to 1450 BC the timeline is stable, thanks to the work of the earlier Voyagers! They were real pioneers."

"And what about the time zones after 1970? Who takes care of them?"

Bogg was a little bit peeved about Jeffrey's apparent lack of interest in his heroes, but he reminded himself that the kid couldn't realize what a great feat it was to stabilize centuries of human history. He certainly was glad that he would never have to deal with Neanderthals.

"There the timeline is still _nofidey_." Noticing Jeffrey's puzzled look at the jargon, he clarified: "Not finally determined yet. It sometimes takes a while before we can be sure which is supposed to be the main time stream. "

"So…my life could be simply part of a frizzle?" Jeffrey was visible disturbed.

"I doubt it. The last time I was in the Headquarters, after my year as trainee, they had the time stream pretty much figured out up to 1990. They were even planning to send some Voyagers in, as soon as the new Omni is ready. But that's a job for the more experienced ones. I have been a Voyager for barely five years; I'm still considered a novice."

"And how do you get to Headquarters?"

"I can't. Headquarters can pull me out if they need to, but a Voyager in the field is pretty much on his own, unless he travels with a trainee. Or with an overly smart kid," he teased.

A bright smile spread across Jeffrey's face.


End file.
